National Day Of Silence

March 26 marked the 10th Anniversary of the National Day Of Silence, a nationwide student-led protest against the violence and discrimination LGBT students suffer in schools. Our intrepid traveling editor Dan was asked to speak to the students of a university in Pennsylvania, Perhaps it’s fitting that Dan ended the day’s Silence, as he is the loudest gay person on Earth. But it wasn’t just the day’s protest that had him worked up.

See below:


Here we are at Millersville University, smack-dab in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch country. Driving in from the airport, we passed a sign that said “Our churches welcome you!” Translation: “We don’t care which church you’re in, but you better be part of one of them!” This is Amish country, Santorum country, not-liberal country. Sounds fun.

A lot of students at Millersville, gay and straight and everything in-between, participated in the event which “symbolizies the voices that are silenced by violence against LGBT students.” Apparently some of the Millersville professors got riled up that their students couldn’t participate in class, but then that’s the point of the protest. So annoyed professors = successful event, methinks. As the keynote speaker, I addressed the need for creating positive images for young gay people to identify with. I also told some embarrassing stories about my parents.

FYI: This picture was taken because a friend of mine insisted I get all the students at Millersville to do Spirit Fingers. I don’t know why he asked me to take it, but I do as I’m told.

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This is Moy and Char, two of the organizers of the event. They are a Millersville sensation, as you can clearly surmize from this picture. Char and Moy were supposed to bring me to a dinner reception the night of the event, but that’s no fun. Why would we do that…

…when Hershey, Pennsylvania is just a short drive away?

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Central Pennsylvania is also the home of the Hershey chocolate empire, complete with a Disneyland-style compound theme park and visitors center. Chocolate World features an informative and action-packed tour of a simulated chocolate factory, complete with talking cows who profess udder delight, if you will, in their priviledged existence at the milk chocolate factory. It should be noted that I have an irrational fear of puppets; I attribute it to the killer puppet in Poltergeist and the horrid creatures from Phil Collins’ video for Land Of Confusion. Chocolate World is no pleasure cruise–it is a dungeon of terrors, with evil eyes following you everywhere.

Terrifying.

And a close-up of the face:

This is the face of pure evil. He wants to kill us all, I know it.